Hybrid View

Plushenko or Kovtun?

I thought Russia had two slots form the men. This is dreadful. Kovtun can out quad Plush, much younger, also talented. Do they go with a youth-future champion or a national Hero? I know Plush has hadn many Olys, but....how will they decide this if both skate very well? I feel bad for whoever stays home. Plush will be a big part of the show. Misahin says he is doing well.

Will it be decided at their nationals? Will Europeans matter. I want both!!!

I still would give Plushenko the nod at this point. Even though he's a shadow of his 2006 self, and not even as good as in 2010, he's much more consistent than Kovtun at this point. Kovtun skated a good SP at Rostelecom and then basically bombed the LP. He did well at Euros last year and then badly at Worlds. With Plushenko I think they're ensured at least a top-10 finish while with Kovtun it could be 5th or 15th.

I hope Plushenko will be good enough so that it will be decided for him to go to Olympics. Kovtun is only real opponent and not very consistent for result. He gets a bronze at Sochi it will be wonderful ending for his career.

Feel free to ignore the PCS as I am sure many won't agree. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, Plushenko didn't have any transitions in 2010, he surely wouldn't be having any in 2014 either. As such, 70 is the highest PCS I can give at this point.

Now, in terms of the technical content, I continue to be baffled by Team Mishin's disregard for CoP. The first thing that caught my attention is that Plushenko continues to do only 2 jump combos instead of the 3 he is allowed knowing that this actually cost him the gold medal in Vancouver. Of course, some will say : "Don't worry, he will surely add one in Sochi." If so, he needs to compete with a 3rd combo now, not at Sochi in order to start getting used to it. Triple Flip continues to be absent in his repertoire, which forced him to do a Double Axel instead, that would again set him back by about another 3 points or so, factoring both lost BV and GOE. Plushenko doesn't do a 2nd Quad when virtually every other top male skater is doing at least 2 will also put him at a great disadvantage. If he does decide to add a 2nd Quad Toe, then he won't be able to repeat either the Lutz or Axel, which in turn makes the lack of a Triple Flip even more glaring with respect to his jumping passes utilization. All these little things add up such that despite a relatively solid skate, the best he can manage is about 83 in TES. Know that when other men have been scoring 90+ even 100+ TES this season, his chance of Olympic glory seems more than remote at this point.

Kovtun is the future of Russian Men Figure Skating, but unfortunately, I don't think it's his time yet. If Plushenko is healthy, he can probably secure a higher placement at the OG than Kovtun on the strength of his consistency and reputation.

Plushy if he's healthy. Otherwise whoever comes out on top at a fairly judged Russian nationals with no politicking, as unlikely as it is seeing what can be done to a grand prix event let alone a domestic one. Sorry but I find Kovtun very hard to watch. Can't stand his posture on his jump entries. He's the reason the Russian men only have one spot.